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A54
sports
Guardian www.guardian.co.tt Monday, November 23, 2015
The key to youth development through sports is
the quality of the sports programme and the lead-
ership competencies of the administrators, coor-
dinators, coaches and parents. Seefeldt (1987) claims
that when young people participate in sports, the
benefits can be cover a range of important areas of
youth development. The youth can benefit from
developing a habit of involvement in physical activity
which can extend throughout her/his lifetime.
A physical activity habit also has the potential to
improving the fitness level of the youth. In addition
to direct sports and physical activity benefits, youth
involvement in sports can also contribute to estab-
lishing important social and emotional skills, moral
values and high levels of self-esteem.
Although it is generally agreed upon that increased
physical activity among youth may result in improved
fitness there are several barriers to youth participation
in sports. The barriers are all connected the social,
economic and cultural changes taking place in the
wider society. Today, youth have more leisure options
such as social media, malls, movies, etc. The pressures
of the education system and parents on children to
focus on passing exams serves as a distraction away
from the enjoyment of participating in physical activ-
ity. In fact some parents and adults may see engage-
ment in physical activity as a waste of time and some
children come to accept this as an unfortunate truth.
Sports provide the youth the opportunity through
their interaction with coaches, parents and their peers
to improve their overall social and emotional intel-
ligence. These skillsets have the potential to assist
the youth in managing her/his emotions and be able
to address various interpersonal issues as they arise.
It is important for coaches and parents to be aware
that participation in sports will not automatically
equip the youth with appropriate social and emotional
intelligence. Despite all the hard work and perseverance
that may be demonstrated in training, sufficient game
time if any at all and or victory is not a guarantee.
Parents and coaches have to impress upon the youth
the importance of the team ethos and whether one
plays or not they are equally important to the overall
success of the team.
Failure on the part of adults to intervene in a timely
manner may result in the youth developing a negative
attitude to her/himself and worst yet become with-
drawn from participating in sports. Additionally, par-
ents and adults probably do more harm to the youth
self-esteem when they make personal negative com-
ments about coaches when their children are not
selected to play or given less playing time. This neg-
ative attitude does not help prepare the youth to face
the realities of the world as well as frees the youth
of her/her possible technical weaknesses that need
improving.
Adults have to express to the youth that failure is
a part of life and it should not be seen as an end.
Instead failure must be explored as a means of devel-
oping new strategies for success. The many sporting
successes that accompanied athletes after failure
must to communicated to the youth to provide a
positive context for them to keep working toward
their sporting goals. In this regards the feedback of
coaches are critical in terms of ensuring the self-
confidence of the youth is not weaken. Coaches have
to ensure that their feedback is constructive and it
positively reinforces what is required to achieve the
youth successes.
There is no question that sports has the potential
to contribute to youth development however, there
are several important questions which must be taken
into consideration. Firstly, it is important to ascertain
how many of the youth programmes implemented
by the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs and private
organizations have as one of its components
the teaching of physical, social, emotional and
moral benefits that are usually associated to
sport participation? Secondly, are administrators,
coaches, instructors, and mentors qualified and
competent to ensure the development ethos of
the programmes are consistently transmitted
to all youth? Thirdly, is government, businesses
and community groups who sponsor and pro-
mote youth sport programmes prepared to focus
on the long-term benefits of such programmes?
Fourthly, are parents willing to serve as role
models in every possible manner to ensure that
their children reap all the benefits ascribed to
participation in sports?
The potential is there, the key is conceptu-
alizing, implementing and constantly monitoring
and evaluating youth sport programmes.
ANAND RAMPERSAD
pastiche6@gmail.com
SPORTIFICATION
Potential abounds
for youth in sport